Adams's administration of the State Department. The honor of first
proposing this recognition, in the Congress of the United States, and of
advocating it with unsurpassed eloquence and zeal, belongs to the
patriotic Henry Clay. Mainly by his influence, the House of
Representatives, in 1820, passed the following resolutions:--

"Resolved, That the House of Representatives participate with the people
of the United States, in the deep interest which they feel for the success
of the Spanish Provinces of South America, which are struggling to
establish their liberty and independence.

"Resolved, That this House will give its constitutional support to the
President of the United States, whenever he may deem it expedient to
recognize the sovereignty and independence of any of said Provinces."

Mr. Adams at first hesitated on this subject. Not that he was opposed to
the diffusion of the blessings of freedom to the oppressed. No man was a
more ardent lover of liberty, or was more anxious that its institutions
should be established throughout the earth, at the earliest practicable
moment. But he had many and serious doubts whether the people of the South
American Provinces were capable of originating and maintaining an
enlightened self-government. There was a lack of general intelligence
among the people--a want of an enlarged and enlightened understanding of
the principles of rational freedom--which led him to apprehend that their
attempts at self-government would for a long season, at least, result in
the reign of faction and anarchy, rather than true republican principles.
The subsequent history of these countries--the divisions and contentions,
the revolutions and counter-revolutions, which have rent them asunder, and
deluged them in blood--clearly show that Mr. Adams but exercised a
far-seeing intelligence in entertaining these doubts. Nevertheless, as